WEEK IN REVIEW: February 2-8

Last week started with visiting relatives in Tennessee and ended with making a lot of new jewelry. My husband got my car fixed, which ironically cost more to fix than my 1st car was to buy. Sigh, at least it's working. With the momentum of turning out projects and writing tutorials, I'll hopefully be able to work out classes to teach. Also, NYC Fashion Week started, so you can check out those Fall Winter 2014 posts, if you want to see the designer collections that keep me inspired. Ok, on to what I did last week.

1) Sunday, Alex and I learned how to make waffles correctly in the hotel waffle iron. The 1st one went terrible, as displayed by Alex's grimace to eat it. I made several for the few days we were there, and probably won't eat another waffle for a while...

2) Sunday, we met my parents, uncle (mom's brother), aunt, grandmother, and 3 cousins for lunch. Afterwards, 2 cousins, my parents, and grandmother went to my grandmother's retirement home to look at old photos. There were some great ones. I really enjoyed seeing old photos of my family, especially ones of my grandmother, great aunt Fran, mother, and older brother. This photo is of my great grandfather, great aunts, great uncles, and grandmother. My grandmother is right on the front row, and my great aunt Fran is behind her.

3) Monday, was my great aunt Fran's 90th birthday. We went to see her and celebrate with some cake. She's a nifty lady who's had an interesting life. She's done so many awesome things.

4) We planned on meeting my parents for an early dinner, so we spent some time wandering around Hobby Lobby, second hand shops, and the small downtown area (it's about 4 blocks long). We meet my parents for dinner at an express teppanyaki restaurant.

5) Wednesday, we headed home. There was intense sun for a few hours, and fog the rest of the trip.

6) Since we got home early in the evening, I made a double heart necklace. I'd seen my cousin wearing a fine jewelry version, on Monday. I figured I could replicate the linked hearts with wire. I'll write a tutorial for the necklace, this week. In the future, I'll use this concept for a few other shapes too.

7) I bought this sword pendant from Hobby Lobby. I made a Basic Chain Pendant Necklace with it. This is a great basic necklace that works for many other pendant types and is great for creating more complicated designs.

8) I saw these Paper Flowers on Jaderbomb, and decided they would be great for accessories. They are at Michaels, $2 for a pack of 12, in various colors and prints. I made these Paper Roses Earrings and Hair Clips. Very simple project and is a great way to turn small light weight objects into small accessories.

9) I had made these Spike Rings for the last League of Space Pirates episode. These are easy to make, and like the flower clips and earrings, it shows how easy it is to turn small objects into rings.

10) I had this random idea to make dark Valentine boxes using existing $1 Valentine boxes. I crinkled tissue paper, and decoupaged it onto the boxes. Then, I painted them with black acrylic paint. I've finished them with decorative painting and will share this decoupage technique this week. It's a great way to give an object a faux leather look.

11) I bought these wood hearts at Hobby Lobby while on our trip, but other craft stores will have them. I made a few sweetheart themed necklaces and earrings with them. The necklace tutorials will go up this week. They are great beginner projects that kids can help with, but they do require a power tool, which is an teen to adult job.

12) Using the wood hearts, I made these Painted Heart Earrings. I used a paint pen for the details, which makes these an easy project for most people.

That's all for last week. I spent the latter half working on projects, which is why those entries don't have days next to them. I made things and wrote tutorials back and forth. As noted, I have a few more themed tutorials coming up. Finishing up the necklace ones likely today, as I've already started them...photos edited and tutorial outline made. I'll probably start some sewing inspired jewelry projects this week, because I bought some miniature wooden thread spools and need to make tassels for a pair of earrings. 

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